Random Happenings

Nothing extraordinary has been going on at our house lately, but the daily passage of time seems to bring with it a simple flow of ordinary moments. These are really the moments that define life, aren't they?

Mia lost her other front tooth. It is fairly rare for a kid to lose the first front tooth and have the permanent tooth behind it fully grown in before the next front tooth falls out. This tooth was a little stubborn, but was finally extracted by none other than big brother Dallin! It was truly a thrilling moment for both of them. Mia placed her tooth under her pillow with great care, but in the morning she was devastated to find that the Tooth Fairy had apparently forgotten to visit! Luckily Daddy, being the clever man that he is, knew that a more thorough search would produce the anticipated dollar that must have "fallen behind the bed."

Mia - ahhhhh, the tooth-bearing years produce such photogenic children!

Our kids really enjoy playing games on the computer. While the other kids are at school, Mia and Jameson tend to spend too much time with their electronic babysitter than I should probably admit to. But they're limited to a small number of educational websites including PBS.org and Nickjr.com. Mia has absorbed all kinds of information about animals and dinosaurs while playing her favorite games. Recently Dallin learned about the site Coolmath-games.com and has had a lot of fun playing that. When I found all three of my computer kids balanced precariously on our single chair, I just had to laugh.

How many kids can you squeeze onto one little office chair?

Last week I got the pre-Christmas purging bug. I went through all the kids' toys, while they were at school of course, and sorted out several boxes worth of stuff to send to D.I. or the garbage. It was very satisfying. I may have been rather ruthless too. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Now we have several empty bins on stand-by for the Christmas haul. I also got busy and got more than half of my Christmas shopping done! And I did it all in my stretchy pants - the Amazon boxes have been flowing in.

I guess we got in the Christmas spirit early this year. Anticipating the arrival of a Christmas baby has made me jump the gun a bit perhaps? We put up our Christmas tree and our little collection of other decorations (I am SO not a seasonal decorator...) over the weekend. We broke out the Christmas CD's and had a jolly time! The kids just adore the Little People Nativity set that Grandma gave us several years ago. It has been a popular source of entertainment (and quarreling!) this year.

Is there any scene so divine as this?!?

I love the peaceful, happy, fun moments that are found when the kids are playing well together. With the older kids out of school there have been more of them. Yesterday I found Dicie and Mia playing together with the set of magnetic dress-up dolls in their room. I loved listening through the door to the sound of their imaginations playing out. Today I watched Dicie play for quite a while one-on-one with Avery. Later she had Mia and Avery taking "karate lessons" from her. What a fun big sister she is! I love those moments. They really help to balance out the tantrums, yelling, and arguing, and the throwing up, sleepless nights, and dirty laundry. I'll take them all I guess for the joy of having my family.